Twisted DIRT Forums

As many of us "oldtimers" remember about growing up is -we didn't have video games....
but we did have pinball machines. I remember playing quite a few games of pinball while I was young.

That's what got me interested in trying out the virtual pinball scene. You can download and play almost any machine ever made. Thousands of them but like anything else I only found 10% really worthwhile.

Here are some screen shots of a few tables in "Visual Pinball"





You can play downloaded tables or even create your own.
This game here was created in Visual Pinball and doesn't need a rom.



If you want to try this these instructions will help.
Remember you need 3-4 things to play a given table
Visual Pinball
PinMame
Table file
rom - not all tables need the roms but at "http://www.vpforums.com" is the best place to get started downloading and for user info.

If you choose a table look on that page for a link to the correct rom if needed.




If that seems like way to much trouble a quick and cool pinball sim called "Future Pinball" is available here:

http://www.pinballnirvana.com

They have everything to get you up and flipping and the tables look great and it's easy to get going...

Here's a screen shot from "Future Pinball" it too has a built in editor but has even more options.



Below are some more links and some instructions for Visual Pinball installation:

=======================================
            Visual Pinball by: Randy Davis
                   www.randydavis.com
=======================================
     VisualPinMAME by: The VPM Dev. Team
                   www.pinmame.com
=======================================
           VPLauncher by Roland Scholz
        http://vplauncher.rolandscholz.de
=======================================
      Visual Install Pack 8.1_1.59 by: Phoenixx1771
                    Feb. / 23 / 2008
www.vpforums.com / www.pinballnirvana.com
==================================

The following five steps will tell you how to sucessfully install VP and VPM with the VIP.
If you want to have these instructions at hand during installation you can highlight this text with 'CTRL+A', then Copy it with 'CTRL+C', and then Paste it into an empty textfile with 'SHIFT+INS' or via the rightclick context-menu.

1.) Press 'NEXT' and complete the basic install. After that the GUI for the installation of VPM will open. Proceed with step 2.

2.) Click the 'Install' button and press 'O.K.' when prompted. The message "VPM has been successfully installed" will be displayed. Close this Message.

3.) After that click the 'Setup Paths' Button and in the opening window press 'RESET'. All paths should be set to the 'Pinball' folder now. Close this window.

4.) If you like to configure the default behaviour of VPM as well click 'Setup Defaults' and take your picks. Close this window.

5.) Close the VPM installer GUI and the VIP installer.

Done, all thats left to do now is to put Tables and ROMs into the folders and you can start playing. Start Visual Pinball with the shortcut which has been created on your desktop. Load a Table into the editor with 'OPEN' and then press 'PLAY' to start the Table. Add coins with 3, 4, or 5 (not numpad) and press 1 once to start a 1-Player game, twice for a 2-Player game, and so on.
If you like to know more about how to use Tables and ROMs, and where to get them, etc., please refer to the ReadMe which is offered at the end of the installation or visit one of the VP forums to ask your question.

THIS INFO CAN BE RE-READ AT ANY TIME BY OPENING THE FILE "1stReadMe.rtf" IN THE 'HELP DOCUMENTS' FOLDER.
THE 'HELP DOCUMENTS' FOLDER IS LOCATED IN THE MAINFOLDER LABELED 'PINBALL'.

There are a lot of tabales available for download.  Do you have any favorites?  I like pinball but I don't want to spend a lot of time downloading tables if you already know which ones are good ones.   

Thanks,
Pete

No problem Pete, let me know what you want Virtual or Future Pinball- both?

I can give you a short list of some of my favs for both
Visual:
Three Stooges
Monopoly
Mr+Mrs Pacman
Simpsons-All versions
Adams Family both versions
Playboy
Star Trek

Future:
Silverball Mania v1.0
Flipper Cowboy
FPEBCv1_0

I was going to try both of them.  I'm a bit confused on how the Virtual Pinball works though.  Why do you have to download ROM's and Tables?  How do you know which ROM you need for each table?

Which one do you like best?  The Virtual Pinball or Future Pinball?

Pete

Future pool is easy to setup-play and looks great but Virtual has more tables.

If you go to the download of a Virtual table you will see a link to the rom on that page. Keep the rom in it's zipped file and place in the rom folder.

Unzip the table *.vpt file to the tables folder.

I had trouble with some of the roms on some of the tables I tried but was able to get them going by looking in the forums.

If you have any problems let me know.

Quote from: Fixer on October 13, 2008, 11:40:12 AM
Future pool is easy to setup-play and looks great but Virtual has more tables.

If you go to the download of a Virtual table you will see a link to the rom on that page. Keep the rom in it's zipped file and place in the rom folder.

Unzip the table *.vpt file to the tables folder.

I had trouble with some of the roms on some of the tables I tried but was able to get them going by looking in the forums.

If you have any problems let me know.

I thought we were talking about pinball?  

Thanks for the info.  I didn't notice the link to the ROM files on the table download pages.

Pete

LOL, multitasking... - pinball

I like Future Pinball.  It looks a LOT better than Visual Pinball.  However there seems to be a time very short lag between when I push the shift keys to move the flippers and when they actually move which is making it hard to play.  Do you notice this lag also or is it just something with my computer?

Pete

yeah I like the look of Future pinball better but all th classics are on Virtual...

I haven't ever gotten lag, does it only happen in Future PB?

On the last weeks i played future pinball and tried find some of the tables i played for real but without success ,
on the next days i will try visual pinball maybe i can find some , one i have played alot was a table with the music  Welcome to the Jungle blablabla... lol  - Guns N' Roses , the Adams Family and star trek i think i have played on real , need try them and see if they are the same that i played.

Edit:
I found and played the guns n' roses table the old version , they are doing a new version of it , found that on the forum but need find the roms for it , the roms for some tables are a big problem , sometimes work others dont.
One important thing is dont extrat the roms from the zips , i was doing error that at the first times.

Guns N' Roses table v3
http://img504.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gnrlhandjpsalasfinalub8.jpg
Download:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AJN8WPVW
Roms: (updated link with roms for this and other tables too)
http://www.ipdb.org/files/4787/term3.zip
Video of the real table:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sffv2cX0s7g

Quote from: Fixer on October 16, 2008, 03:42:17 PM
yeah I like the look of Future pinball better but all th classics are on Virtual...

I haven't ever gotten lag, does it only happen in Future PB?

Yep, only seems to happen in Future Pinball (not pool  )  Visual Pinball works fine.....I just don't think it looks as good as FP.

Pete